Red Hat's support for OpenJDK on Windows anchors Java apps

Red Hat's extension of long-term support for OpenJDK on Windows will help organizations standardize the development and deployment of their Java applications across multiple environments.

OpenJDK is the open source implementation of Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE). Red Hat already supports OpenJDK on its Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution, specifically for Java 11 and Java 8. Red Hat's long-term support for OpenJDK on Windows extends the company's commitment to the primary operating system and platforms for enterprise desktop, data center and cloud environments, and also to Java developers, who run their applications on those frameworks.

The long-term support for OpenJDK on Windows will run through at least June or 2023, said Craig Muzilla, senior vice president of Red Hat's core products and cloud services business group. Red Hat's OpenShift container and enterprise Kubernetes platform also provides commercial support for OpenJDK to all major cloud providers and facilitates hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments.

One analyst observed that this long-term commitment would give customers confidence to plan with OpenJDK and eliminates concern that investments in their Java applications will become obsolete.

Torsten Volk

"Developers want to focus on coding business functionality instead of testing for and debugging issues that originated from differences in the operating system," said Torsten Volk, an analyst at Enterprise Management Associates, based in Boulder, Colo. "Not coincidentally, this is the same reasons why containers have become so popular."

Red Hat has been active in the OpenJDK community since 2007 and has contributed a significant amount of code to the project, including stewardship positions on OpenJDK 6 and OpenJDK 7. Red Hat has also steered the move of Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) from Oracle to the Eclipse Foundation.

Developers want to focus on coding business functionality instead of testing for and debugging issues that originated from differences in the operating system.

"The Red Hat stack still is strongly focused on Java development tools and middleware," Volk said. "Offering consistent support for both Windows and Linux strengthens Red Hat's position in the Java arena and it puts Red Hat into the driver's seat when it comes to making the Java platform as strong as possible for next-generation microservices-based apps."

Red Hat's commitment to OpenJDK is also in response to potential changes in long-term support for proprietary JDK offerings from providers such as Oracle, Red Hat's Muzilla said.

Red Hat isn't the only company to commit to OpenJDK. AWS last month introduced Amazon Corretto, its own OpenJDK 8-based distribution, with long-term support at least through June 2023. By contrast, Oracle's OpenJDK 8 support for commercial customers runs out in January 2019.